Losses widened at the full-year stage for personalised medicine and diagnostics group Epistem (EHP) - mainly reflecting increased investment in its flagship molecular diagnostics product, Genedrive. However, that was overshadowed by the termination in August of an agreement with distribution partner Becton Dickinson after Genedrive was hit by a number of technical and manufacturing issues.
Genedrive can provide more accurate results than other tests and quickly, too - less than 45 minutes compared with four weeks. Epistem also reckons the technology will be up and running for its first application for tuberculosis diagnosis in India, and ready for a market launch, sometime in the second half of 2014. Crucially, it has also secured a supply and distribution agreement with Xcelris Genomics, one of India’s leading research and services providers. Elsewhere, revenue from preclinical research services was flat at £2.9m while, at the personalised medicine unit, sales fell from £2.7m to £2.5m. Moreover, the net cash pile has fallen since the period ended - to £5.4m by the end of September, mainly as a result of the repayment of a £0.6m upfront technology access fee to Becton Dickinson.
Broker Peel Hunt expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £0.1m for 2014, giving adjusted EPS of 0.9p (2013: £0.3m loss/3.3p loss per share).
| EPISTEM (EHP) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 331p | MARKET VALUE: | £32m | |
| TOUCH: | 317-335p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 583p | LOW: 320p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 124p* | NET CASH: | £6.5m | |
| Year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 3.97 | -0.67 | 1.10 | nil |
| 2010 | 5.74 | 0.35 | 3.80 | nil |
| 2011 | 5.75 | 0.35 | 4.90 | nil |
| 2012 | 5.56 | -0.73 | -2.90 | nil |
| 2013 | 5.36 | -1.46 | -12.5 | nil |
| % change | -4 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: na Payment: na *Includes intangible assets of £3.5m, or 36p a share | ||||
